


i knew you'd linger like a tattoo kiss

by astoriaamalfoyy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Celebrity, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Muggle, F/M, Lawsuits, Not Canon Compliant, Social Media, Song: cardigan (Taylor Swift), i miss jily, semi angst but mostly humor and fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:33:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26364226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astoriaamalfoyy/pseuds/astoriaamalfoyy
Summary: "James has always been one for dramatics." "You got that right."***after james sues lily for stealing a song, the world is left wondering whocardigantruly belongs to.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Mary Macdonald & Marlene McKinnon & Dorcas Meadowes & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter
Comments: 15
Kudos: 72





	i knew you'd linger like a tattoo kiss

**Author's Note:**

> short answer: the song _cardigan_ actually belongs to taylor swift, from her album _folklore_ (which you should totally listen to, if you haven't already). i don't own it. please don't sue me taylor, ily :)
> 
> i know i haven't written a fic in a while, but now that i'm back in school, inspiration has hit me like a fucking bus and i feel the need to write in the middle of every single spanish class. btw, i tried editing but it's so chaotic i couldn't do it, so, uh, enjoy it!

**Evans vs. Potter**

_Written by Rita Skeeter, Entertainment, September 23, 2019_

Only three weeks before her highly anticipated tour, _we are electric_ , solo artist Lily Evans, came out with a brand new single, titled _cardigan_ . Hours after the music video debuted, James Potter, lead singer of _The Marauders_ , took to Twitter, going off on Lily. He claimed _cardigan_ was his song and that Lily stole it from him and his bandmates (Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew).

 _“_ cardigan _belongs to my mates and I,”_ said James in a tweet. _“It was supposed to be in our next album… track two, actually.”_

Lily retaliated almost immediately, saying the lyrics in _cardigan_ were from her heart, that they were her words and her words alone.

 _“I wrote this song in two days, produced it in one, and filmed the music video in three… it was after I experienced a horrible breakup that I was inspired and needed some relief,”_ she explained in a short video targeted towards James and her 47.5 million followers on Twitter. _“I let my storytelling and imagination take control of this song… I sincerely apologize if my song reflected the theme of yours, James, but_ cardigan _is mine, not yours.”_

Then Sirius Black, the keyboardist and backup vocalist of _The Marauders_ , got involved in the conflict, adding his two-cents in a twelve post Twitter thread.

 _“Your lyrics ‘I knew you’d linger like a tattoo kiss / I knew you’d haunt all of my what-ifs’ are exactly the same_ [as James’] _as I vividly remember James singing it the same way in a songwriting session,”_ Sirius said.

He also added: _“what the fuck is up, Evans?”_

Lily retorted, although this time in anger.

 _“I would like to note, @siriusblack_official,”_ she tagged him in a thread, _“that not only do James and I have very different styles of songwriting and performing, but that just because lyrics are similar, it does not mean they are stolen.”_

Sirius did not respond, but later that day, James hopped back on Twitter, giving Lily a simple message:

_“@lilevans, my lawyer will be contacting you within the next few days.”_

It took Lily three days to respond, but, of course, she did (with massive cheek, mind you).

 _“See you in court asshole ;) @jamiepotter,”_ she said.

Wow, Lily! Vulgar language much?

Still this leaves both fans and haters alike wondering; if this was James’ song, how did Lily get her hands on it? And if _cardigan_ was really Lily’s, why are James and his bandmates so desperate to convince us otherwise? Is there really a court case in the works?

***

“I cannot fucking believe this,” Mary exasperated, stirring a sugar cube in her tea. 

“I know right,” Lily sat down next to her childhood friend who doubled as a member of her band. “He’s fucking suing a week before the tour. Alice is trying her hardest to negotiate with Frank, but James won’t budge; he’s determined to go back to court.”

“What I don’t understand,” the drummist said, “is why he’s doing this now? You guys already arranged this after the breakup. The Marauders got _exile_ to duet with Emmeline Vance and you got _cardigan_.”

“Speaking of which, I still can’t believe he got _exile_. It sounds so much better with my voice than with Emmeline’s,” Lily rubbed her temples. “Anyways, I think James is just doing this now for the attention it brings the band.”

Mary nodded. “Yeah, I bet that’s what it is… James has always been one for dramatics.”

“You got that right.”

“And look, I know you thought you two were soulmates and all, but wasn’t your whole relationship more trouble than it was worth, at least in the end? You had been together what - three years - on and off, on and off, relationship status changing every two weeks?”

“Yeah, on and off for four years; our anniversary was October thirty-first.”

She nodded once more, before continuing. “As I was saying; it’s not like your fans knew about your relationship - the only thing they knew was that you were in a long term relationship with a boarding school sweetheart and you both wanted to keep your courtship private.”

“Ha!” laughed Lily. “I remember that interview! Literally every single media source came to the idiotic conclusion that I was dating Prince Harry!”

Mary giggled, taking another short sip of tea.

“Do you think you’ll win the case? If it goes to court?”

“Uh,” Lily muttered, “I’m not sure… it could really go either way. I know that it was co-written between James and I, but it’s legally licensed as my song, I’m the sole owner of _cardigan_. So, I reckon I’ll win. I mean, I have to.”

“I think you’ll win, too,” Mary agreed. “Like you said, you have to; there’s literally no way you couldn’t.”

***

“I really don’t know why you’re taking it this far,” Sirius plopped down on James’ bed, kicking his shoes off onto the wooden flooring.

“Because it’s my song,” James retorted, digging through his closet.

“It’s both yours and Lily’s song; you both wrote it. Technically her solo version is by her more than you, since she changed some of the older lyrics.”

“It was my idea -”

“To write _cardigan_ , yes, tell us something you haven’t already told us before,” Remus stepped into the singer’s bedroom, followed by Peter.

“Well, it was,” muttered James.

“We get it,” said Remus, “but you’ve taken this whole thing too far. It was alright with Twitter at the beginning, but then you hacked into Sirius’ account and wrote that ten post-long thread -”

“Twelve, actually. This dumbass bullshitted twelve posts on my account trying to convince the world that _cardigan_ is his song,” Sirius motioned towards James.

“It is my song!”

“And now you’re suing her,” finished Remus, “right before her tour and our album release. It’s the worst thing you could do right now.”

“Yes, I know,” James finally turned towards them, two jackets held in his hands. “Denim or leather.”

“ _Kingsley_ is so denim,” Peter replied, “just put some pins on it.”

“Thanks, Pete,” he said. “Nice to know someone in this band doesn’t hate me at the moment.”

“I don’t hate you, but I’m still disappointed,” said Peter.

James groaned, shrugging on his bleached-washed denim jacket. 

“I, for one, think James should back out of the lawsuit,” Sirius raised his hand absentmindedly, scrolling through Instagram on his phone.

“Me too,” Remus furrowed his eyebrows.

“Same,” Peter crossed his arms, attempting to look buff.

“If you lose the lawsuit, it’s bad press for the album… besides, Frank said we could use all the good press we can get. I guarantee losing a lawsuit against Lily Evans the worst press we can get.”

“Ugh! How else am I supposed to tell my crazy famous ex-girlfriend that I want her back in a way that’s public but not public enough that the whole world will know?” demanded James.

Sirius sprung up from the bed, knocking over several throw pillows and Peter, on his way over to his best friend. “That’s what all this _cardigan_ shit is about? Getting Lily back?”

“Well, yeah…”

“You’re. A. Fucking. Dumbass.”

“Thanks, mate.”

“No, I’m serious.”

“Duh.”

“Stop it now, James.”

“Alright, carry on.”

“Now, hear me out,” Sirius lifted his arms, “why don’t you just go to her and ask her if she wants to get back together with you. Knowing Lily, she’ll tease you for a few minutes until you get defeated, then she’ll kiss you and you’ll ravish each other all night long.”

Remus cringed. “Thank you for the visual, Sirius; ew.”

“You don’t understand,” James started pacing, “this was the worst fight we’ve ever had. I don’t think we’ll be getting back together this time.”

“Mate,” Sirius was getting impatient now, “what’s the harm in trying? You love her and she - most likely - still loves you! Give it a shot, dammit!”

James ran a hand through his hair and shuttered. “Yeah, you’re right. What’s the harm in trying? The worst she can say is no, right?”

“Yes!” the other three exclaimed at once.

He smiled and went over to his desk, pulling out a notebook to write his game plan for wooing Lily back into his life.

***

“You’re a fucking chicken,” Sirius told James, fixing his tie in the compact mirror he always kept on hand.

“I know, I know, but we’ll win this court case and have _cardigan_ back to ourselves,” he replied. “Doesn’t that sound great?”

“No,” Peter shook his head.

“You know what does sound great, though,” Remus said. Not waiting for a response, he added, “not spending my Saturday in a smelly courtroom.”

“Come on, Remus, get over it.”

“I think Remus has a great reason to be upset; in fact, we all do,” Sirius responded. “You told us you’d get the case dropped and go to Lily to tell her your feelings.”

“Plans change,” James said as their chauffeur parked the car. 

Peter just grumbled as Sirius responded, “you’re making a big mistake, mate.”

“I don’t think so,” he replied.

“Yes, you are,” grumbled Remus as the four got out of the car, nodding at the bodyguards at their sides.

“Nah,” said James, stepping into the threshold of the courthouse, running a hand through his hair as he stood to the side of the corrider, looking around for his lawyer. All of a sudden, he mumbled, “holy shit…”

***

Lily locked eyes with James before turning back to her friends, her breath hitched.

From beside her, Marlene groaned. “You're impossible sometimes, Lils.”

She turned towards her friend. “What do you mean?”

Dorcas laughed. “It’s obvious! You didn’t go to James - like you told Alice you did - and are now giving him goo-goo eyes.”

“I’m not,” Lily insisted.

“Yes, you are,” Mary, Marlene, and Dorcas replied in unison.

“You still think he’s the hottest love crumpet to ever grace this beautiful earth,” said Mary.

“What the fuck does that even mean?” demanded Lily, green eyes widening.

“And you were top of our class,” Marlene facepalmed. “What Mary means is that your still eye-fucking James. Everyone can tell.”

“No.”

“Yeah.”

“No, I’m not. I think I’d know.”

“Yeah, you’d think you’d know… but you don’t because you're so entranced.”

“Alice,” Dorcas addressed Lily’s manager, “did you see Lily eye-fucking James earlier?”

“Oh, yes,” she nodded. “The moment she laid eyes on him, she was undressing him in her mind.”

“Come on,” Lily clenched her fists. “I thought you were supposed to be on my side, Alice.”

“Believe me, I was on your side,” said Alice, “until you lied to me and told me you spoke to James about the situation. I had to find out from Frank you never spoke to him at all.”

Lily stuttered, at a loss for words. “Well!” she eventually managed. “He didn’t approach me either!”

Dorcas rolled her eyes. “What happened to the days in boarding school, where you constantly preached ‘be the bigger person’ and other shit like that?” 

“Those days are long over!”

“Praise God for that!” Mary said, cringing. “I had braces during school! Braces! Eek!”

“And I wore blue eyeshadow every day,” Marlene shuttered. “The boarding school days were the dark days.”

“You got that right,” Mary said, high fiving the other girl when Alice clapped her hands together.

“Focus!” she ordered. “We’re mad at Lily right now! Not reminiscing on the darker time of our lives.”

“Ladies,” Frank, the manager of _The Marauders_ (who doubled as Alice’s husband), approached them, the boys following close behind.

“Hello, Frank,” Lily shook his hand in the most professional manner she could, considering they’d known each other since teenagerhood. 

“Miss Evans,” he replied, stifling a laugh, “how have you been?”

“I’ve been well, thank you. Although, I would be much better at home right now, but alas, here we are.”

“Lily,” James spoke up, from behind Sirius.

“James,” greeted Lily, lifting an eyebrow.

The two just stared at each other for a few seconds, silent.

Sirius broke it, indiscreetly whispering to Remus, “definitely eye-fucking.”

James and Lily broke their stares, heads snapping towards Sirius. “What the hell?” they demanded at once. 

“I wasn’t -” started Lily.

“Neither was I -” interrupted James.

“We weren’t -”

“No, of course not -”

“Uh-huh,” Alice peered down at her watch. “Marlene, Mary, Dorcas; come with me. Let’s go sign in.”

“What about -” Lily began. 

“Stay here,” she replied. “We’ll come back to get you.”

“Yeah, Sirius, Remus, and Peter; we should probably go check in too,” Frank motioned the three away from the group of girls, who started walking towards the check-in desk.

“What about -” James pleaded.

“Stay here.” 

“But I thought I wasn’t supposed to be with Lily alone until -”

“Stay here.”

Frank didn’t even give an explanation before he and the others departed, leaving James and Lily alone.

“So…” Lily trailed off, hands nervously shaking behind her back.

“Yeah…” he ran his hand through his unruly curls. James sighed, “this is awkward.”

“You can say that again.”

“This is awkward.”

“I didn’t mean actually.”

“Oh.”

“You know,” she said, finally meeting his eye, “you really didn’t have to sue me for... what did you sue me for, again?”

“Theft. I sued you for theft.”

“Wow.”

“I know,” responded James, voice soft.

“Then why’d you do it?” demanded Lily.

“I - maybe we should talk? Somewhere more private?”

***

James let out a deep breath as Lily pulled away from him. 

“I thought we were just going to talk,” she said, “not do - whatever that was!”

“It was just kissing, Evans,” he ran a hand through his hair.

“Kissing!” exclaimed Lily. “Before a court case where you’re suing my arse for theft.”

“Shit.”

“Shit is right!”

“Is it too late to cancel the case?” James asked.

“I think so,” Lily replied. “I don’t know. How am I supposed to know? I’m not a lawyer!”

“You were top of the class in our year!”

“Yes, but that was four years ago!”

“Shit.”

“Shit.”

James rubbed his temples, wracking his brain to attempt to formulate a plan. 

“Maybe we should ask Alice?” Lily suggested. “Or bring it up to our lawyers? The judge, even?”

“Yeah, yeah, we should do that,” nodded James, “because I do not want to go through with this.”

“Neither do I,” she agreed.

“I just want to snog you. Do you want to snog me?”

“Of course I want to snog _you_.”

“Perfect, then, case dropped,” James wrapped an arm around Lily’s waist, pulling her close. “We’ll take my driver to the airport and call to tell them we’ve left halfway to Vegas.”

“Wait, who said we were going to Vegas?” she demanded, but James didn’t respond. 

No, he just kissed her instead.

***

**#Jily Is Real?**

_Written by Rita Skeeter, Entertainment, November 9, 2019_

#Jily has been spiraling around Twitter, making its way to number one on the trending list four days ago where it still sits. #Jily is a shipping name created by fans for musicians James Potter and Lily Evans, after James dropped a lawsuit against Lily.

The lawsuit was first posed to Lily in late September, after James insinuated she stole a song from him, titled _cardigan_. The date of the court case was announced and Twitter was taking sides, Evans versus Potter. But a few days after the supposed court case, an anonymous source leaked information about it being called off last minute, that both Lily and James had come to a personal agreement.

After this information was shared, Lily and James took to their Instagrams to share a video they had taken together at James’ apartment in London, England, both posts captioned ‘we need to talk’.

“ _The truth is_ ,” stated Lily, “ _is that James and I were involved romantically for countless years. In early July of this year, we mutually decided to call it quits_.”

“ _Before breaking up, however,_ ” James took over for her, adding, “ _we wrote several songs together, and were supposed to have an E.P. out together in October, for our anniversary._ cardigan _was a song on the E.P. After our breakup, we divided the songs on the E.P. evenly for personal distribution, and Lily legally gained the rights to cardigan and the whole process of writing it._ ”

“ _To this day, I still don’t understand why I started the Twitter fight, when I knew I was in the wrong,_ ” James continued in the fifteen-minute long video. “ _It was Lily’s song, it was copyrighted under her name; I knew I would lose the lawsuit_.”

“ _Recently_ ,” Lily said after James explained his thoughts, “ _James and I reconnected and decided to give our relationship another try, James dropping the lawsuit at the last minute. We have history, you know, so we thought: what’s there to lose?_ ”

“ _After we ran away from the court house - because that’s just what we did,_ ” James finished with a laugh, “ _we drove to the local airport and hopped on the first plane we could to Vegas._ ”

They ended the video simply, the couple holding up their left hands to show sparkly gold wedding bands and announcing their E.P., titled _you put me on_.

 _you put me on_ features songs _cardigan_ , _exile_ , _illicit affairs_ , and _mirrorball_ , and is set for release on January 25, 2020. Definitely check it out, folks, whenever it’s out!

**Author's Note:**

> if you want, kudos and comments are greatly appreciated and truly make my day. if not, i hope you have a great day and enjoyed the fic!
> 
> check me out on [tumblr!](https://emptysatellite.tumblr.com/)


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